Louise's father Wayne was a draftsman and county assessor and surveyor, and devout religious man, and may have been separated or divorced from Phyllis.

US reports say Louise's parents had tried to visit their daughter and son-in-law in the past, and had to turn back at the airport when the Turpins refused to provide their street address.

Other relatives said they rarely visited the Turpins, and never the dark, stinking hellhole in Perris, California where the Turpin couple's children were found shackled or cuffed to beds.

The farmhouse in Rio Vista, Texas where the Turpins previously lived and strange vents were found in the closet of the master bedroom. Picture: NBCTV.

Neighbours said they either saw no children living there, or that the children were "very pale" and did not speak when approached.

The alarm was raised when the Turpin daughter aged 17 escaped and dialled 911 to say her brothers and sisters were being held captive.

The girl was so tiny that deputies initially mistook her for a 10-year-old.

Ms Lee said of Facebook comments that the children were obviously emaciated, "Looking at pictures and saying 'you can tell they're malnourished' is a hell of a lot easier to do after you read a news report that says they were being starved".

David, 57, and Louise Turpin, 49, are in custody on $9 million bail each while their children are being fed and cared for after escaping the torture house.

The couple, who have been married 32 years but had renewed their wedding vows three times in six years with an Elvis impersonator celebrant in Las Vegas, kept to themselves.

Elvis impersonator Kent Ripley renewed the Turpins’ vows three times in Las Vegas and said the kids ‘all looked the same’.

With David Turpin as principal of "Sandcastle Day School", their home schooling operation, the parents taught and heavily preached to their children, who are aged two and 29 years old.

The six adults and seven children who make up the Turpin siblings dressed alike, wore haircuts matching their same gender parent and reportedly learnt the Bible off by heart.

The house where the Riverside Sheriff's Department found them emaciated and "shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings", from the outside looked orderly.

Neighbour Robert Perkins complimented the Turpin children on their Nativity scene but they didn’t reply. Picture: Frederic J Brown

The one level brown bungalow in the Riverside county middle-class neighbourhood of Perris south of San Bernardino had just four bedrooms for the large family.

The house was devoid of toys or bicycles. Neighbours say they didn't see much of the family who purchased it in 2014.

Kimberly Milligan, described the family as "stand-offish" hoarders who had their garage filled with books and who often let the grass in their front yard grow out of control.

One of the Turpins’ 10 daughters, aged 17, jumped from a window and called 911 to report their capture.

Another neighbour, Julio Reyes, said the Turpins "look pretty normal" and he had seen the teenagers mowing the lawn and putting up Christmas decorations last year.

The Turpins had filed for bankruptcy twice in the past six years.

Louise Turpin, who one friend described as a "super mom" when she posted family photos of her 13 children on

The couple’s 13 children included three sons (above) and tried to learn large tracts of the Bible off by heart.

Facebook, did not work.

Her husband had two stints as an engineer at security company Northrop, but the couple had suffered credit card debt and had foreclosed on a family farm.

They also skipped her father Wayne’s (above) funeral three months later.

They bought the $315,000 house in Perris, an area known for its high level of home foreclosures, after moving from nearby Murrieta.

The couple appears to have moved house reasonably often, perhaps as many as eight times.

They lived in Rio Vista, Texas, up until 2010 before they moved to California.

One of the Turpins' California neighbours, Wendy Martinez, said her only contact came as she passed the house at night last October.

Four children were installing turf in the garden while the mother watched from the door, and none responded when Ms Martinez said hello.

Police outside the torture house which inside was a stinking hellhole. Picture: Frederic J Brown

David and Louise Turpin at their last wedding vow renewal in Vegas in 2015.

"They were very, like, afraid," she said of the children. "Like they had never seen people before."

A few years ago, Robert Perkins said he and his mother saw a few family members constructing a Nativity scene in the Turpins' front yard. Perkins said he complimented them on it.

"They didn't say a word," he said.

When authorities confronted the children's mother, Louise Turpin in the "torture" house at Perris on Sunday, Fellows said she appeared "perplexed" about why officers were at the home.

The couple was jailed on $US9 million bail for charges of child endangerment and torture.

They were scheduled for an initial court appearance on Thursday.

Fellows said there was no indication any of the children were sexually abused, although that was still being investigated.

Ms Lee hit back at suggestions the couple's youngest child, a girl aged two, was the result of incest between David Turpin and one of his daughters.

Neither sheriff's deputies nor child welfare officials had received a single call over the years about the Turpin home.

Videos posted on YouTube show the couple renewed their vows at the Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas three times in recent years, most recently on Halloween 2015.

Elvis impersonator Kent Ripley performed all three ceremonies. Most of the children, dressed in matching outfits, took part.

Numerous photos on the couple's Facebook page show the children dancing at the ceremony, visiting an amusement park that appears to be Disneyland and going on other outings, looking thin but often smiling.